Tough times for pensioners or a disaster for school leavers? Actually, the financial crisis has hit 28-year-olds hardest, ONS claims

For all the talk of a 'squeeze' on pensioners and the middle-aged, figures show that it was actually 28-year-olds who suffered the most during the financial crisis.

Analysis by the Office of National Statistics show that as of 2013, the nation's 28-year-old workers earned on average 17.6 per cent less, adjusted for inflation, than those who turned 28 in 2009.

This is the widest gap in earnings of any age as younger workers were particularly hard-hit by the economic downturn, with average incomes for those in their 20s 12 per cent lower compared to four years earlier as they suffered through high unemployment and wage freezes.

Lucky for some: Wayne Rooney may have had a good financial crisis, but his fellow 28-year-olds are not so lucky.

But all age groups were affected, with earnings down 11 per cent across the board in real-terms between 2009 and 2013, with those in their 30s seeing a drop of 12 per cent.

The blow was softened slightly for workers over 50, whose earnings fell by 5 per cent over this period.

The good news however is that the last four years is considered a 'blip' in the grand scheme of things as wages fell from the record highs seen in 2009, with workers still much better off now than they were in previous decades.

Every age group is better off now compared to the same age groups in 1975. A worker aged 21 in 1995 earned 40 per cent more by the time they were 39, including inflation, than those aged 21 in 1975.

The difference means that someone who started work in 1975 would have to work three to four years longer than someone who started work in 1985 to build up around the same amount of earnings, and five to six years longer than someone who started their career in 1995.

The figures also show a closing gap when it comes to pay inequality and gender pay levels.

Pay levels among the under 30s in 2013 was almost equal between the sexes, though the gap is at its largest among 49-year-olds, with men of this age paid 45 per cent more than women.

Closing gap: There is very little difference in pay between men and women under 30 now.

Still, this is lower than the huge disparity that existed in 1975, peaking among 38-year-olds, with men paid 61 per cent more than women on average at that age.

The introduction of the minimum wage has helped close the gap between the richest and poorest in terms of wage growth.

Between 1975 and 1998, when the national minimum wage was introduced, earnings growth for the bottom 1 per cent of workers was 63 per cent, compared to 138 per cent for the top 1 per cent.

Since 1998, the bottom 1 per cent have seen their earnings grow 49 per cent, more than twice as much as the top earners.

The research notes that since 2011, the largest wage falls have been experienced by the top 10 per cent of earners.

Suffering: Workers in their 20s were the hardest hit by the financial crisis.

Workers won't reach earning peak till they're 38

People now have to wait a decade longer to reach their earnings peak compared to those who started work in the 1970s, the study also found.

In 2013, people reach the height of their earnings on average at the age of 38, earning £13.93-an-hour typically.

But in 1975, workers reached this level much sooner at 29, though they received much less for their labours at £7.09-an-hour in today's money.

The earnings of men and women peak at very different stages of their lives, however. Something which can mainly be put down to how many more women still put careers and earnings on the backburner when they have children.

A woman will typically reach the height of her earning power at the age of 34, when she is earning around £13.19 per hour.

Meanwhile a man will see his earning power reach its height at the age of 50, when he is earning £15.54 per hour on average. The difference reflects many women returning to work part-time after having children.